The Interview of KFZO Managing Director with Iran Yearbook
Kish during the Past Year
As the first question, I would like to ask you, Mr. Mounesan, based on what kind of program and in which fields did the development of Kish Island executed?
The development has two aspects, Superstructure Development and Infrastructure Development. What is seen and visible is the Superstructure development, but in fact without the Infrastructure development, there is no support for the superstructure development. This can be explained as follows: from the beginning of our management team started its activities; Kish Island had numerous problems and issues regarding water and electricity. Frequent power outages, especially in hot and humid weather conditions of Kish Island were one of the issues that citizens faced.
This happened due to the lack of infrastructures along with the population growth and the needs of the Island.
This led us to review the situation of Kish from the first day, that what does Kish Island have and what potential is there on Kish Island, in what parts do we have shortages and does the development happen in a balanced way.
With these questions, our experts had begun to evaluate the potential and possibilities of Kish However; they also kept studying the population and statistical information about Kish Island.
By collecting this information, we began the development plan of Kish and I can definitely say that through the measures and the procedures that have performed in terms of urban infrastructure needs, the Kish Island has been provided for years to come.
What do you mean by saying that, the Island needs are fulfilled in the coming years?
In any society, according to the population statistics, the facilities like water, electricity, sewage, housing, entrances and exits facilities, cultural facilities and .... are accessed and funded.
Although Kish master plan has been prepared and implemented on the Island years ago, through studying the situation we have found that in some parts such as housing the development process is more than what the population requires , so that in the next few years there will be no need for housing construction, but in the field of energy , the amount of production equals the amount of consumption, which means if in case of any increase in the amount of consumption, Kish will face problems , unfortunately this problem occurred at the time of our arrival, and for Kish Island which its primary mission is tourism, It was an unfortunate incident that could have serious problems following an integral compensation.
Or in the sewage part, we have witnesses the unpleasant smell of sewage all over the Island which was unacceptable for the Kish tourists to constantly suffer from bad smell during their trip to the Island.
In the port section of Kish, despite the construction of the twelve thousand tons pier at the Kish commercial port, due to the depth of four meter vessels pool with a capacity of 12 thousand tons that are not even considered as very large ships, could not berth at the port of the island and many merchants and tradesman were forced to import their goods from the ports of other cities.
At Kish airport terminal, in the terminal hall there were many difficulties and problems which causes dissatisfaction of tourists and residents, all these were just a small parts of the island's infrastructure problems.
Therefore, by identifying the weak points in the infrastructures of Kish we have started the development from the Kish infrastructure.
Kish Port
Mounesan said: In the past three years, using the country's largest dredger, we have dredged the Pier basins of twelve thousand tons in the Kish port and the depth of this area have reached ten meters in order to make berthing also possible for fifteen thousand tons vessels in the Kish port. This action was the beginning of the operations for Kish commercial port development.
The construction of 35 thousand ton Pier sustainable step with many advantages
The construction of 35 thousand ton Pier is considered as a sustainable step with many advantages for Kish Island. After completing the 12 thousand-tons pier, Kish Free Zone Organization began the operations of 35-ton pier construction on September 2014, so that after the completion of this project, there will be the ability for berthing of vessels up to 35 thousand tons in Kish port.
The Ro-Ro Mechanized Pier
According to Mounesan, this pier is being built with eight posts in Kish port that will be put into operation the next year and will be ready to serve hydraulic ships with a capacity of 500 to 5 thousand.
40 Billion Tomans Cost Reduction in the Operations of Kish Port Development
Mounesan added: In the process of implementing the two urban project of 35 thousand ton Pier and the Ro-Ro Mechanized Pier and during the short pause of constructing operations by the contractor we were able to take advantage of the consult of value engineering in the field of precise evaluating and expert declaration of expenses and process optimization of the project execution, we have reduced construction costs by 40 billion tomans.
Container Warehouses
On the path to the Kish Port development, there have been Container Warehouses of Commercial Port in this area with an area of 8 hectares in two zones of A and B, each with an area of approximately three and five hectares under construction. The warehouse is designed to have an average capacity of TEU4000. For the construction of Kish Commercial Port, 45 thousand cubic meters of Earthworks, 39 thousand cubic meters of concrete works and 81 thousand square meters of concrete block are conducted.
Since the Kish Island is not connected to the mainland, in the field of energy, how much security support is there to meet the needs of citizens and tourists? In case of climate crisis, are there any suitable substrates have been made to provide energy on Kish Island?
To answer this question, first of all it is necessary to explain another issue.
From the day our management team of the Government of prudence and hope started its activity, the Kish Island had only one power plant which the amount of its water and electricity production and consumption had reached break-even point.
On the other hand, due to the imbalance development of Kish Island in the past years, all the facilities were concentrated in the central and eastern parts of the island. This means that there has been no effort to develop the west and south parts of the Island and even though there were several projects in process in these areas, yet there is no prediction to provide needed energy for these projects, both in production sector and the facilities of energy distribution.
On September 2013, Kish Island had reached to the point that could not provide water and electricity for citizens and tourists let alone providing energy for big projects like Water Park and residential complex located in the south of the island.
The fundamental resolving of this problem was in the center of our development activities since we have taken responsibility of Kish Development and the result of these proceedings was providing lighting in the residential, commercial and tourism areas. In the past three years by increasing the cable distribution to 141 km cable and 132 kV we have reached the growth of three and a half times.
By providing infrastructure, water and electricity production of Kish Power Plant (1) units increase and establishing Kish Power Plant (2), the total capacity of practical electricity generation in 2013 were about 137 megawatts which reached to 235 MW to have 71 percent growth.
The fresh water production capacity on Kish Island in 2013, was 21 thousand cubic meters per day, we have increased it 67 percent to reach 35 thousand cubic meters.
Kish Tens of Thousands Cubic Meters Wastewater Treatment Plant
In order to remove the bad smell of sewage and prevent environmental pollution, with the opening of the first phase of Kish Wastewater Treatment Plant in the north part of the Island in addition to solving many problems, 9 thousand cubic meters of water needed for irrigation of Kish green spaces have been provided by this Wastewater Treatment Plant that through utilizing from phase 2 this amount will increase to 13 thousand cubic meters.
What are the most Significant Actions that have been taken on Kish Island in the fields of Development?
The good thing that happened on Kish Island was that in the 3 year Government of Prudence and Hope, the numbers of development projects have reached about 700 billion Rials that considering the development budget of different provinces; we realize that this number is very impressive.
Mr. Mounesan explained: we have developed 118 hectares of land in the West part of the Island which the model that is also available.
We have allocated 90 hectares of land in the West part of the Island under the name of Kish Entertainment Center to start building a very good amusement park in 2017, because this project is our priority. Of course, next to this project we have the Avay Kish Project which is a great cultural complex. Therefore, in the west part of the Island there will be created a suitable center for tourism and cultural sectors.
One of our policies was that to follow up everything in the path of beauty and tourism growth. Therefore, the hotel construction projects shall not be seen as only a simple high building that means even the form of the building should meet with the island's beauty, which certainly this policy has responded very well. Today we have a hotel under construction which is like a city and is completely existed on the water and is rapidly developing as well. We have also a hotel where snow and winter games are available in it.
One of the very special projects that promote the lands of Kish is called the special focus or Kish 1404 which starts from the airport and goes to the beach of Damoon. Up to now, we have assigned 5 spots of this project and the design work of it is also already done. There have been 7 great civilization of Iran, China, Egypt, Greece, Rome and the ancient civilizations of mankind in this shell is designed to have different use inside.
The Restructuring of Safin Area in order to Develop Eco-Tourism
Safin is area where the native people of Kish Island live, it is a predominantly indigenous area which is constructed based on local culture of the people and despite it is kind of old but we are still trying to preserve this area, to become a cultural zone. In this regard we have finished the designing of the area and have done the optimization so that to keep it with indigenous identity.
51% Increase in Tourism
In 2012 the amount of land assignment were 970 thousand square meters on Kish Island which reduced to 94 to 82 thousand square meters based on the executive policies of Kish Free Zone Organization, in fact, it caused to have a real price of land assignment during this 3 years while we had also reduction of about 91% in land assignment.
The Kish Free Zone Organization along with the support and facilitating the terms and conditions for investors in the sectors of industry, tourism, infrastructure and services has begun to improve the composition of investment projects on the island.
The Kish Island is a Pioneer in Achieving the Goals of Resistance Economy in Free Zones
According to the policies regarding Resistance Economy, in the production and export sectors we have reached 15% increase in the first 5 months of 2016 and also we reached the same number in the re-export sector.
We are hoping to have 30 percent increase in production and exports, re-exports and establishing of technology promotion and transfer centers as our objectives for the current year.
The Kish Island has imported the latest Airbus plane of the country, what are your future plans regarding the development of Kish Aviation and Airport?
One of our priorities is to buy and modernize Kish Airbus fleet. Therefore despite the many difficulties that we have faced, we bought four Airbuses for Kish Island, which two of the aircrafts were the latest aircrafts at the time.
Constructing the First Standard Wide-Body Aircraft Runway of the Country on Kish Island
Widening, improvement and cover the south runway for nearly 4 kilometers length that has been done with aim of constructing and preparing the first standard runway of the country.
Constructing the Second Largest Airport Terminal of the Country in Kish
The Kish International Airport Terminal with the capacity for four and a half million passengers annually is considered the second largest airport terminal of the country after Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport terminal that the process of constructing and equipping finish with the year 2017.
Mr. Mounesan, in various media you have mentioned that there is a new destination for tourists to visit during the New Year Norouz? Hendorabi! What facilities are there for tourists?
Hendorabi Island will enter the cycle of tourism this year. Currently the airport, port and the hotel of the island are ready to give services, and so far several test flights with aircraft of type Fokker 50 ATR with a capacity of 40 passengers have carried tourists to this Island.
Now, you can have a trip and visit Hendorabi Island, through air and sea.
And Mr. Mounesan Last Word:
The Kish development process is continuing very fast. More important than that has been done in Kish are the plans and projects that lie ahead for Kish development. Especially in the tourism sector, due to the proximity to the New Year we have considered special programs for all the people. So we invite all people of our country on Norouz 96 to travel to Kish and also have a visit to Hendorabi Island.